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Uninsured Americans need health care options. 4-1-1 HealthNews offers alternatives such as savings accounts health, medical discount cards for savings, and medical tourism.
In today’s economy, it is fortunate minority who have both a job and medical benefits. Indeed, the number of uninsured Americans has continued to increase, and at last count numbered 50 million. And those who have the least resources, the unemployed, has a high level of medical debt.
There are no easy answer. Eventually the economy will turn around, the Affordable Care Act will help some benefits, but others can stay out in the cold. Without funds to pay for COBRA coverage when they lose a job or to purchase private insurance, the needs of many alternatives to Americans in two daily newspapers and health problems related to more complicated surgical problems. The options are limited, but here are some options that can provide common ground.
(1) High Deductible, Catastrophic Policies
With the high cost of traditional full-service policies, many people prefer to opt out of insurance altogether, but there are some policies that help meet the costs that you have a major or catastrophic medical condition. And it is these policies that could help you keep your home and never have to visit a bankruptcy lawyer if you can not pay your medical bills.
High-deductible catastrophic policy to cover unexpected situations, such as skiing broken leg after surgery quadruple bypass heart attack, stroke, or diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Generally do not cover routine visits, prescriptions, or a monthly diabetes equipment.
You pay a monthly fee for insurance, and should an injury or illness struck you when you paid an agreed policy deductible kicks in to pay medical bills. For healthy individuals who rarely see a doctor, to allow these policies for peace of mind. Policies are available from most major insurers, including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield and United Healthcare.
(2) Medical Tourism
Medical tourism is a new trend in health care, not to mention one of the fastest growing sectors of health care, where patients wishing to travel outside the United States for medical procedures.
The primary factor in the cost of medical tourism is, pure and simple. For the underinsured and uninsured, medical tourism offers a choice of quality of medical care prices lower than they could obtain in the United States. Although travel expenses are included, patients still come out well before out-of-pocket expenses, because the procedures are 30-90 percent less abroad (varies from country to country, and the procedure).
The type of procedures are offered abroad is long, and the list of countries where medical tourism is an alternative to a dizzying. You can achieve the same level of care, often less than U.S. trained physicians and hospitals that are accredited by the Joint Committee, the same agency that accredits hospitals in the United States.
Get health care abroad, according to the patients book Beyond Borders by Josef Woodman, less for a number of reasons: the standard of living are more modest, doctors and staff command lower wages, funded by health care with the private costs of health care down, and the lawyers fault that not docile, at least much more reluctant. At the confluence of the coincidence of initiatives that offer medical tourism to thrive in the world.
While you can organize all aspects of a trip abroad for medical services, many choose to use a medical tourism facilitator. Medical tourism facilitators are a new race, helping patients, employers and insurers to find confidence in facilities abroad. The advantage of using a facilitator is your experience and knowledge, and references to accredited and certified suppliers abroad. Although there are many leaders, to find a good reputation can be difficult. Healthbase Try: Health Without Borders, an award-winning animator who works in the United States Retirement Med, also based in the United States, serving the North American region to arrange for medical services in 10 countries in the abroad; Hospital planet, which has nearly 10 years of experience is a pioneer in medical tourism, or help WorldMed.
(3) Medical Discount Savings Cards
With a medical discount savings card, membership entitles you and your family to access negotiated network rates, similar to those that many major insurers currently pay for services. This can mean a savings of up to 85 percent on doctor, lab, pharmacy and hospital services. These programs can be used as a stand-alone plan, or in conjunction with a high deductible health insurance plan.
There are several of these cards available and most are the same. The difference comes down to service. One of our favorites (and, in the interest of full disclosure, one of our sponsors) is the Fitz Card, developed by Precis Health Care. Precis charges a one-time application fee of $10, then a set monthly fee. There are two levels of service: $19.99 and $39.99, both of which include coverage for doctor, hospital, dental, vision, prescription services, hearing aids, vitamins and diabetic supplies, and a nurse hotline.
There are no restrictions for pre-existing conditions with medical discount savings cards, unlike most traditional health insurers, and you are free to use the program services as often as you like.
Similar to major insurance providers, programs like the Fitz Card restrict use to the thousands of providers within their network. You must pay for the services yourself—there is no co-pay—but, in return, there are no insurance forms to fill out.
(4) Medical Sharing Program
This is a pooled resource program where members pay a monthly fee and share in each others’ healthcare costs. Some are small and locally based, others, such as [fill in] are larger covering 30,000-40,000 members.
Monthly fees are low, typically less than $250 for a family of 4, and there are no large deductibles. Many sharing plans require an “incident fee” as each health issue arises, which is similar to a co-pay. Anything above and beyond can be submitted for reimbursement from the program.
Some medical sharing programs encourage and reward healthy lifestyles, which can mean additional discounts, and will offer health coaches to those who are suffering from ongoing or chronic healthcare issues.
Often these programs have pre-negotiated discounts with physicians and hospitals, reducing rates to those similar to what a typical insurance company would pay. There are exclusions, primarily for elective surgery and faith-based medical sharing programs may also exclude birth control and abortion.
NOTE: Some medical share programs are claiming an exemption from the federal government’s mandate that all Americans be insured by 2014. Members of those programs will not be required to carry insurance when the health reform’s individual mandate kicks in.
(5)Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
Technically, HSAs are not a stand-alone product; they are used in conjunction with a High-Deductible Policy (see above). Created in 2003, their purpose is to help individuals with high-deduction policies save for medical expenses and eliminate the tax burden on those funds. Money invested in an HSA can be pre-tax and money withdrawn from an HSA to pay for qualified medical expenses is also tax-free. Additionally, employers can contribute to an employee’s HSA as part of their benefits package.
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HSAs can be used for almost any legitimate medical expense or procedure, including doctor’s visits, surgery, long-term care, prescription and OTC drugs, vision, walking and hearing aids, and even alternative medicine (acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic) in some cases.
Consumers decide how much to invest per year in an account, which can rollover to future years without loss of benefits. They can also control how the money in the account is invested, much like an IRA (stocks, bonds, mutual funds).
HSAs can be set up with a number of qualified administrators, often a bank or insurance-related company, such as Chase, State Farm, Farmers, and HealthEquity, or with a specific HSA administrator such as Health Savings Administrators, HSA Trustee Services or HSA Resources.
Source: [Healthnews]
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